300% growth on average
Forge's private AI index shows rapid enterprise revenue and valuation scaling, highlighting immense secondary investor interest.
Inside the Private Stock Market Boom: SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI & the Rise of Secondaries
Private secondary markets have experienced a massive boom, with employee secondaries representing 31% of all primary venture activity in 2025 as companies choose to stay private longer.
Jun 7, 2026
39:38
Difficulty: Intermediate
Played
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inside the Private Stock Market Boom: SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI & the Rise of Secondaries
Private secondary markets have experienced a massive boom, with employee secondaries representing 31% of all primary venture activity in 2025 as companies choose to stay private longer.
Jun 7, 2026
39:38
Difficulty: Intermediate
Played
TL;DR
Private secondary markets have experienced an unprecedented structural boom [1] — Brad Gerstner "Double 2021 Peak volume: Secondary market transactions are at historic highs, driven by the emergence of late-stage private companies and i…" 01:37 , with employee secondary transactions now representing 31% of all primary venture activity [2] — Brad Gerstner "31% of primary VC activity: Employee liquidity options have scaled tremendously, representing nearly one-third of total primary venture act…" 01:47 . Financial experts Brad Gerstner, Gavin Baker, and Kelly Rodriques join the hosts to explain how platforms like Forge Global are partnering with Charles Schwab to connect millions of retail accounts to late-stage private assets [3] — Kelly Rodriques "The alliance between Forge and Charles Schwab will democratize access to legendary private assets like SpaceX. This integration represents …" 09:22 . They discuss why companies choose to stay private longer [4] — Gavin Baker "Staying private shield CEOs from hard questions, creating an echo chamber of sycophantic private boards. Public markets provide clean, brut…" 03:40 , highlight hot opportunities like Revolut and Zipline, and warn of the extreme risk of retail FOMO. The ultimate takeaway is that secondary markets are fundamentally transforming corporate lifecycles, and modern investors must develop a rigorous selling discipline [5] — Brad Gerstner "Many venture capitalists focus exclusively on buying, forgetting that returning liquidity to LPs is the goal. Taking chips off the table du…" 16:48 to return true liquidity.
#Secondary Markets
#Venture Capital Liquidity
#Special Purpose Vehicles
#Fintech Innovation
#Democratized Investing
#Autonomous Robotics
#secondaries
#private-markets
#IPO
#liquidity
#venture-capital
#AI
#SPVs
#fintech
#investment
#democratization
In this episode, Brad Gerstner, Gavin Baker, and Kelly Rodriques join the Besties to break down the explosive boom in private secondary stock markets. They explore how secondaries are competing directly with traditional IPOs, the dynamics keeping companies private longer, and the landmark deal between Forge and Charles Schwab. They also cover the risks of retail FOMO, the debate around SPVs, and name the hottest private companies they are buying today, including Revolut, Zipline, and specialized AI infrastructure plays.
Chapter list
- SPV
- Special Purpose Vehicle; a legal entity created for a single, specific financial transaction, often used in VC to pool capital from multiple investors to buy shares in a single private company.
- DPI
- Distributed to Paid-In Capital; a key venture capital performance metric measuring the cumulative distributions returned to limited partners relative to their total paid-in capital.
- Interval Fund
- A type of closed-end mutual fund that periodically offers to repurchase a percentage of its outstanding shares from shareholders, providing liquidity in otherwise illiquid asset classes.
- Agentic
- Relating to or acting as an agent; in AI, this refers to systems capable of autonomous decision-making and executing multi-step workflows.
- 13F
- A regulatory filing required of institutional investment managers with over $100 million in assets under management, disclosing their public equity holdings.
- ZERP
- Zero Interest Rate Policy; a macroeconomic period of near-zero interest rates that fueled massive valuation inflation in venture capital.
Chapter 1 · 00:00
Brad Gerstner, Gavin Baker, and Kelly Rodriques join the Besties!
Forge's private AI index shows rapid enterprise revenue and valuation scaling, highlighting immense secondary investor interest.
Chapter 2 · 00:47
Secondary Markets are Booming & Competing with IPOs
Are secondaries replacing traditional IPOs? The data says yes.
The Secondary Market Takeover
Private secondary market trading has surged past its 2021 peak, with transactions competing with IPOs as the primary liquidity mechanism. Employee-backed secondaries reached 31% of all primary venture activity in 2025.
Double 2021 Peak volume
Secondary market transactions are at historic highs, driven by the emergence of late-stage private companies and institutional asset managers looking for distribution channels.
31% of primary VC activity
Employee liquidity options have scaled tremendously, representing nearly one-third of total primary venture activity.
106% Premium in Q1 2026
Secondary assets previously traded at around an 80% discount but reached an average 106% premium in Q1 2026.
Why Private Companies Lack Clean Information
Staying private shield CEOs from hard questions, creating an echo chamber of sycophantic private boards. Public markets provide clean, brutal truth and pressure testing that ultimately makes companies stronger.
Chapter 3 · 09:22
Why Companies are Staying Private So Long?
Forge and Schwab are bringing 46 million retail accounts to the private market.
The Forge-Schwab Institutional Alliance
The alliance between Forge and Charles Schwab will democratize access to legendary private assets like SpaceX. This integration represents a major structural shift toward retail-accessible late-stage private equity.
46M investors & $12T AUM
The historic deal allows Schwab's millions of clients and trillions in assets to participate cleanly in private markets.
Chapter 4 · 13:28
SPVs, the Forge-Schwab Deal, Democratizing Private Market Access
Venture capital has a major blind spot: knowing when to sell.
Selling into Strength: VC Liquidity Strategies
Many venture capitalists focus exclusively on buying, forgetting that returning liquidity to LPs is the goal. Taking chips off the table during high-priced private secondary rounds is a fiduciary duty.
Chapter 5 · 17:28
Secondary Markets as Exit Liquidity for VCs
The massive public market wave waiting for private companies to cross the finish line.
The Massive Mutual Fund Capital Bottleneck
Mutual funds like Fidelity are capped at 15% private asset ownership, but voluntarily restrict exposure further. When private giants finally IPO, a massive wave of public market dry powder will flood back.
15% SEC Private Asset limit
Large institutional funds face strict SEC constraints, self-imposing limits of 3% to 7% to manage risk.
3% to 7% self-imposed caps
Most funds cap private assets at 3% to 7% to avoid SEC compliance friction, reducing their active late-stage private purchasing power.,end_time:1455,speaker_name:
Chapter 6 · 27:00
The Private Market Bubble?
There are 14 ETFs launching on the day of the SpaceX IPO that are levered ETFs into SpaceX at like whatever, 1,750,000,000,000. So, just tells me that there's a lot of... We may not be at the top, but we ain't at the bottom.
Chapter 7 · 32:03
Hottest Secondary Companies Right Now
Is Sierra building the Salesforce of the Agentic Era?
Sierra and the Native AI Agent Super Cycle
Sierra is building native agents for customer service and sales, redefining software. Although they face platform risk from base models, their sophisticated agentic layers make them highly attractive.
Chamath's Bull Case for Revolut
Revolut operates with a next-generation software stack, systematically unbundling traditional banks across Europe and the US. Their robust margins and massive scale make them a prime secondary target.
ARIA & DriveNets: Unlocking AI Networking Bottlenecks
As chips disaggregate into specialized prefill and decode tasks, AI data centers must reinvent networking. ARIA and DriveNets represent the highly specialized infrastructure layer that will capture massive spend.
Neurorobotics: Quietly Dominating German Automation
Neurorobotics is a German industrial robotics company capturing huge logistics revenues out of the limelight of Silicon Valley. They represent exceptional execution with over 100 million in revenue.
100M in revenue
The European robotics play operates efficiently without Silicon Valley hype, reaching significant cash metrics.,end_time:2179,speaker_name:
$15 down to $2 per delivery
By optimizing autonomous tech and avoiding landing, Zipline plans to drive consumer delivery costs down to unbeatable price-points.,end_time:2230,speaker_name:
How Zipline Conquered Autonomous Logistics
Zipline bypassed regulatory hurdles in US airspace by proving its autonomous drone tech delivering critical medicine in Africa. In doing so, they dropped maternal mortality rates by up to 95% in key regions.
90% to 95% reduction
Zipline's targeted autonomous flights successfully deliver fresh blood and modern medicine to midwives in rural villages.,end_time:2308,speaker_name:
No indexed bits in this chapter.
Show stoppers
The Secondary Market Takeover
Private secondary market trading has surged past its 2021 peak, with transactions competing with IPOs as the primary liquidity mechanism. Employee-backed secondaries reached 31% of all primary venture activity in 2025.
How Zipline Conquered Autonomous Logistics
Zipline bypassed regulatory hurdles in US airspace by proving its autonomous drone tech delivering critical medicine in Africa. In doing so, they dropped maternal mortality rates by up to 95% in key regions.
Snapshots ()
Key Quotes ()
This episode
Claims & Sources
5 / 5 cited (100%)
Factual claims made this episode, and whether a source was named.
The secondary private market grew significantly in 2025, with transactions representing 31% of all primary venture activity.
In the private secondary market, average pricing transitioned from trading at a discount (80 cents on the dollar) to a 106% premium in Q1 2026.
A basket of 19 private AI market companies grew on average by 300%.
Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, and other mutual funds are constrained by SEC rules limiting private holdings to 15% of their total assets.
Zipline reduced maternal mortality rates in some African regions by 90% to 95% by using autonomous drone medical deliveries.
This episode
Cast
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Leading space exploration company known for running structured employee liquidity programs.
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Track
AI research company discussed extensively in relation to secondary market interest and valuation risks.
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